


Against the Time

by Angel110



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst, Character Death, M/M, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-05
Updated: 2015-10-05
Packaged: 2018-04-24 22:35:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4937752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angel110/pseuds/Angel110
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>ZiTao has only 24 hours of his young life, will his savior turn up in time?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Against the Time

Huang ZiTao is 22 years of age and has only twenty-four hours to live. There is so much he still wants to do, falling in love for the first time, graduating from university, having a good job, having a family and so much more. ZiTao is every girl’s and boy’s dream: tall, muscular, very handsome. When he was in high school he has been the one with the most love letters of the whole school. He has had many friends, he has received so much love, which was until he became the freak of the school.  
ZiTao is different from normal people, very different. He can do things others can’t do and now he is haunted for the things he can do because people found out and are now after him. He doesn’t know those people, they are at least twice as old as him and after him like a hunter after its prey.  
Just a few days ago the tall male of Chinese origin has fled to South Korea to seek ‘Asyl’ which he got granted quickly. For some reason the South Korean government knows about him and his abilities and as the meeting he has had with them, they have whispered a lot near him, most probably about him.  
He has got bodyguards to protect him but even they have not been able to help him. Minseok has been the first to get shot. Yes, those people have found him fast and ZiTao is scared they will get him. Joonmyeon has been next and his last bodyguard, Jongin has been shot just a few hours ago.  
Now, ZiTao has got the threat that he better voluntarily went with those people that were after him or they would not let him alive and the Chinese male knows better than becoming a mouse to experiment with, he would die a quick death or he would find a way to escape them.  
Just a few years ago, ZiTao has found out that he is different than other people. At first he has been scared and weirded out by himself but after a while he got used to it, started practicing and was even proud of himself. To his bad luck, people found out as said already and so ZiTao has not have much time to learn how to defend himself in situations like these. Yes, he is trained in wushu but what these people are capable of … ZiTao hasn’t come far with his wushu skills.  
“Dang it, what do they even want from me? Would people please stop being so secretive about whatever is going on? I just want to live a normal life. Ahh!” ZiTao pants heavily, he is taking a short break in the underground. He doesn’t know where he is or how long he has even run. He seeks protection by the shadows. They are surrounding him like a precious vase to protect but he can’t keep them with him for too long. It still costs him a lot of strength and he needs to save as much as possible. Something big his coming up, he knows it, he can feel it.  
The tall male sits down in the protection of the shadows and sighs deeply, his face buried in his hands. Why him? What do they want from him? He just wants to live a normal life, like everyone else. He doesn’t want these abilities anymore. He liked them up until now, now they are just a nuisance.  
“Where are you, sweetheart? Come on, don’t make it hard for both of us. Just follow us to a special place and after an hour everything will be over.” They were close again, shit. ZiTao curses under his breath and pleads the shadows would stay by his side while he would try to build a safe distance to them again.  
But he feels how the shadows become weaker already, he has to run and literally run for his life now. He runs and runs, not knowing where to, he just wants to get away from these people. Meanwhile, he has lost two more hours. Twenty-two hours to go, twenty-two hours that decide about his future, his life or death.  
“I heard footsteps! He needs to be somewhere here! Luhan, Yixing, over there!” A deep voice calls in Chinese with a thick accent.  
“Understood, boss!” ZiTao looks back behind him, two males of Chinese origin are following him, while the other person is nowhere to be seen. And then the tall male runs into the missing person, seemingly the leader of them. He lands on his butt and looks up into the face with the smug grin while the shadows slowly fade around him. Now, he was in huge trouble.  
ZiTao quickly stands up and turns around to run into the other direction but there one of the men is already pointing a gun to his head. He turns around again but the tall foreign male stands there, a ball of fire in his hand and the smug grin still all over his face.  
The third male stands right next to ZiTao, making a sharp dagger appear in his hand. “What the heck do you want from me? I didn’t do anything. I just want to live a normal life.”  
The men laugh and ZiTao can hear the clicking sound of the gun to ready it. “You will see soon enough and now follow us. This could have been so much easier for you, boy.”  
As ZiTao does not make any sign of moving, the deer like male next to him kicks him in the back of his legs. “You heard the boss, follow us.”  
“Okay, okay!” ZiTao sees himself defeated and follows the tall foreigner in front of him, the two other men right behind him and paying attention that he won’t do something stupid. The Chinese male curses under his breath and tries to build up the shadows around him but without having had any chance of reloading his powers, there is no use.  
ZiTao follows them as they walk into different directions, the walk takes about two hours and no one speaks a word, not even ZiTao himself. He doesn’t want to get into more trouble. The kick of the deer like male has been pretty hard and is still hurting a bit. The tall Chinese could probably get them all down by using his wushu skills but he decides not to try, who knows what the foreigner and the Chinese male with the gun have in store.  
They come to a stop in front of a big door which the leader kicks open and ZiTao can feel the tip of the gun be pointed harshly into his back for him to go inside. He is shoved to a lonely chair in the middle of the large and dirty room. He gets pressed down onto it and the guy with the gun ties his hands behind the chair with tape while the deer like male ties his legs to the chair. The leader walks over to a table with weird tools ZiTao can’t quite recognize.  
“We will be giving you the rest of the nine-teen hours, boy. Just because we are so nice and we got some other things to do. You know, preparing stuff and all.” The leader tells ZiTao and turns around again, looking at him as he takes out his phone and calls someone. The tall Chinese does not know whether to be happy about it or not. If he can find a way to escape, he will sure be happy about it.  
“Luhan here will stay with you so you don’t get funny thoughts about running away.” The leader refers to the deer like male that is wearing the same smug grin as his boss. It would have been too good to be true, ZiTao thought, of course they would not leave him alone here although he is tied to the chair.  
The deer like male that is referred to as Luhan walks over to him and sits on his lap, caressing his cheek with his fingertips. “You will have lots of fun with me, little one.”  
ZiTao makes a face, it feels disgusting to get touched by this girlish boy. He just hears the other two leave and is left alone with deer boy in his lap. Luhan is still touching his face and after the two other men left he lets the dagger appear in his hand again and drags the tip along ZiTao’s cheek, leaving a stinging pain behind and making the tall male gasp.  
“The fuck, for what was this? I doubt, your boss will like it if you kill me before he can get whatever he wants from me.” Luhan just laughs maniacally and swipes his finger along the cut he has just made before leading it to his mouth and licking the blood off deliciously.  
“Whether he likes it or not, I do my own thing and he knows it. Don’t worry I won’t kill a handsome boy like you, not yet at least.” The deer like male smirks and expands his canine teeth before leaning to ZiTao’s neck and grazing them along the smooth, tanned skin.  
“Let go of me, you disgusting thing.” ZiTao hisses and tries to shake the other off him but that is too difficult when one is tied to a chair. He can feel the other grin against his neck and suddenly feels the wet tongue run over his skin.  
“You call me a thing? That hurts me, you know? I have a name, too. I am Luhan. You can call me Lulu, handsome.” Luhan says in a bittersweet voice with fake pain and grazes his teeth along his neck again. ZiTao feels like vomiting. Whatever Luhan is, he is not human.  
“Luhan, long time no see, huh?” A deep male voice appears behind ZiTao and the tall Chinese can see Luhan’s face pale but his expression becomes angrier, he even bares his teeth and finally gets off ZiTao much to his relief.  
“YiFan, what are you doing here? Don’t tell me you are the guardian of this child.” Luhan makes the dagger appear in his hand again. ZiTao wants to look behind himself to see the other male but for some reason he stays still.  
Guardian? What are they talking about? And he is not a child! ZiTao glares at Luhan but otherwise keeps his mouth shut, as he doesn’t want to get into more trouble. The stinging pain in his cheek is enough already.  
“Yes, I am. Why else would I be here? Not for you. Also, he is not a child anymore, don’t call him that. You look younger than him.” ZiTao mumbles a short ‘thanks’ as the stranger behind him suddenly appears a few steps in front of him and behind Luhan as the latter is about to throw his dagger at him, hitting the emptiness instead.  
ZiTao can’t see the stranger’s face and huffs silently. He wants to see his possible savior or guardian or whatever. He closes his eyes and calls the shadows for help. He can see them sneak up to him as he opens his eyes, Luhan’s and the stranger’s shadows included and makes them try and help him out of this chair. It is the most difficult thing he has ever done with shadows and it costs him a lot of strength but he needs to try.  
Luhan has turned around the second he has thrown his dagger into emptiness and faces the stranger again now. Suddenly he turns into a wolf and ZiTao watches with wide eyes, frozen for a moment. What kind of thing is Luhan? The wolf lunges forward to bite the stranger but the other just disappears and appears next to ZiTao, touching his shoulder gently.  
“Are you okay? Did Luhan do that?” ZiTao can feel the stranger’s thumb sliding over the cut on his cheek and snaps out of his frozen stage, looking up to the other and nodding slowly. The stranger is a handsome man with delicate features and determination and strength showing in his eyes. ZiTao finds himself mesmerized by the other and can’t get out a word.  
“Argh!” Luhan has taken the moment of distraction and shifted into a big snake, having lunged his teeth into the stranger’s arm. ZiTao gasps but the stranger just rips the snake out of his arm and throws it against the nearest wall before watching the wound in his arm heal within seconds. And what the heck is the handsome stranger? Can’t anyone finally explain things to him?  
In the meantime, to ZiTao’s surprise and luck the shadows have really managed to free him from the tape, so that he can stand up now. He looks at the snake that is about to shift into something else and looks at the stranger who nods and grabs him by the waist, pulling him close. ZiTao gasps surprised but the stranger smiles at him.  
“Now hold on tight.” ZiTao bites his lips and nods, doing as he is told by the handsome stranger before they disappear together and appear in an unfamiliar room.  
“I am sure, you have many questions. Go on, ask me.” ZiTao lets the other push him on a comfortable looking bed and watches him go to a desk and rummage through the drawers for something. The room is bright and looks friendly, something ZiTao hasn’t seen in a lot of weeks that he is on the run now. It makes him smile. There are even plushies on the bed, mostly dragons and the tall Chinese can’t help but take one and rub his cheek against it. After all he is also only a boy that wants some comfort. But he forgot that he is not alone right now and blushes slightly as he hears the stranger laugh softly.  
“Take good care of XingXing. He was my first plush. Yes, they are mine. Doesn’t look like it right? I am actually a friendly guy. Oh, I am sorry, I haven’t even introduced myself yet. How impolite of me. I am Wu YiFan, your guardian since birth.” YiFan bows with a smile and walks up to him again to dab a cotton ball on his cut and make him hiss slightly.  
“Uhh … nice to meet you, YiFan. Would you mind telling me what the heck is going on? Who are those people that are after me? What is a guardian, what are you? What is Luhan and the other guys? What do they want from me? And how old are you? You are not much older than me, are you?” ZiTao instantly asks all the questions that are on his mind and makes YiFan chuckle who is putting a band aid on his cheek right now.  
“Luhan, and I guess Yixing and Chanyeol were with him too. They are so called ‘Gatherer’. They are working for Byun Baekhyun, a scrupulous monster who absorbs other’s powers into himself to become the most powerful creature in the universe and rule over the world and all its parallel universes.  
They collect the people with powers for him to any cost. Since you have a power that’s very rare for some reason they want you as their trophy to get the highest praises because of course there are more than only three gatherer working for Byun.  
A guardian is someone that protects the people that have powers from birth. I am your guardian and need to protect you with my life. A guardian is difficult to explain, they can have any shape, can be an animal or of human shape. I am a mix of many species; I have a very big and exotic family. The biggest part of me is an angel.  
Luhan is some kind of demon and shapeshifter, Yixing, if you met him, it’s a guy with a gun. He is pretty much useless. He can only heal and can use weapons well. Chanyeol … You should stay far away from him. Besides controlling the fire he can suck out your soul and make you wander around on earth, feeling nothing but emptiness. You can’t even die.  
And my age is a secret.” YiFan winks with a smile and chuckles again as he sees ZiTao’s mouth agape and his eyes wide. “Also, we are still not safe yet. Our mission is to kill the gatherers and get to Byun Baekhyun.”  
“We? You and I? But why? I just want to go home finally. I don’t want anything to do with all this anymore.” ZiTao hugs the plush dragon close. He doesn’t understand any of this; gatherers, guardians, absorbing powers and whatnot. If they just want his powers he will just give them to this Baekhyun voluntarily and then go back to his normal life.  
“I know what you are thinking, why can’t you just give them your powers and live a normal life. I had many that thought like you but each of them I had to give the same answer: You can’t. Once, Byun has absorbed your powers, it will have the same effect as what I told you about Chanyeol’s power. And I don’t think you want this,” YiFan explains and goes back to his desk to get out something that look like a weird phone from his drawer.  
“Also, I saw what you did with the shadows. No one else that was able to control the shadows has ever been able to make them hide the bender or touch material things just like your shadows did with the tape that was tying you to the chair. You are a very special shadow bender, ZiTao. And I am sure with some training you would also be able to produce them,” YiFan continues to explain while dialling a number.  
“I don’t care. I just want to live a normal life. Can’t you take anyone else to help you take this Byun down? I can’t be the only that is of help. And if you are partly angel, where are your wings?” ZiTao asks curiosly as he studies YiFan’s back closely. To be honest some things sound pretty cool but the tall Chinese doesn’t want to put his life on the line for things that sound so fictional. Although, he has seen many things with his own eyes and his own powers shouldn’t exist either.  
YiFan gives a soft laugh and turns around to face the younger boy. “Do you think I run around all day and show my wings to everyone? I would be crowded within seconds and be the next movie star. And to answer your question: Sadly, no. As much as I would love to let you go and live this normal life you are talking about, I can’t. You are the only one that can help me bring them down and it is a clear order from above.”  
Then the guardian stands up and suddenly removes his shirt, making ZiTao squeak in surprise and blush from embarrassment. “Why are you taking off your shirt now?”  
“To show you my wings? I don’t want to ruin my shirt, it’s Givenchy. That’s damn expensive.” YiFan grins, finding the behavior of the other adorable as he turns around for his back to face him again and let his wings grow out.  
ZiTao would lie if he said he hasn’t been impressed by YiFan’s body of steel because he definitely is. Now, he is just staring at his guardian’s toned back and watches small bumps appear of which slowly white feathers are breaking through the skin and just moments later YiFan stands there with a pair of wings at his back. ZiTao gasps at the beauty and reaches his hand out to touch them, they are so soft, he hasn’t touched anything softer yet.  
“I can’t move with them or anything, otherwise I would break my belongings. I will show you another time.” YiFan lets them disappear again and turns around to face his protégé. The other still seems impressed by what he has just seen and can’t take his eyes off the taller male anymore. The guardian though gets back to the serious things quickly and pulls on his shirt again.  
“Have they said anything important? Do you know when they will come back?” YiFan sits back at his desk and calls the number he has just dialled.  
“They said they would give me the remaining time still because they still needed to prepare some things.” ZiTao shrugs after getting the hang of himself again. “It should be Ten hours from now.”  
“Great, enough time for us to prepare ourselves, too. Hey, Boss. Yeah, just kidding, Jongdae.” YiFan laughs as he talks with someone on the other line in a language that ZiTao can’t understand, Korean seemingly. So his guardian isn’t only handsome but smart as well.  
“Look, I have ZiTao safe here at my place and I only met Luhan. Yixing and Chanyeol left to prepare something, probably the arrival of Byun. We have Ten hours left until they will come back, I think that’s enough time to teach ZiTao some good stuff. Okay, understand. Thanks, I will be on my way. Yeah, of course I will tell you everything after we are done. Bye.” YiFan puts the phone into his desk again and faces ZiTao.  
“We will go to a place where I will teach you some things that will help you fight and defend yourself. You will listen to me, okay? And do what I say because then we will get over it fast and you can leave everything of this behind faster as well.” ZiTao nods obediently and stands up as YiFan does and holds onto him tight again as they teleport to the mentioned place.

Ten Hours Later  
“Are you ready?” YiFan asks ZiTao as he prepares the boy with all kinds of weapons, that the other hides with the help of his shadows. They are about to teleport to the place where the guardian has saved his protégé.  
The boy nods determined and with a serious expression. He has learned a lot in the past ten hours, amongst other things how to regain his powers quickly. “Ready. Let’s go and beat up some asses.”  
YiFan grins, liking how the boy is thinking now and pulls him close again to teleport to the desired room in the underground. They know very well that this won’t be a piece of cake but YiFan has taught ZiTao a lot of the weak points of the four of them and the boy feels more secure now. He will try to avoid Chanyeol as much as possible and try to weaken Byun fast, so that the risk of having his powers taken is reduced to the minimum. Yixing will be a piece of cake though but Luhan is a different story.  
The room is dark and pretty cold as they arrive and nowhere is a sign of the four people they are going to take down. “Where are they? Do you think they are looking for us?”  
“Probably, but we should still be careful.” YiFan holds ZiTao close to himself as he tries to look around the room and just as he is about to say something, four fire balls in each corner light the room and they are trapped. Yixing, Luhan, Chanyeol and Baekhyun are all standing around them with their smug grins. Baekhyun has the widest grin and steps up to YiFan, grabbing his chin. It looks a bit funny because Baekhyun is one and a half heads smaller than the guardian.  
“Look who we have here. My dear Yifan. You could have stepped over to my side log ago. It would have been pretty fun but instead you still waste your time protecting the ones that are supposed to die. How many times have you succeeded yet? Ah, two times out of … Eight? How impressive.” Baekhyun laughs, his laugh echoing in the room and making a shiver run down ZiTao’s spine. This man is kind of scary.  
YiFan glares and slaps the smaller male’s hand away. “Today will be number three and your death. You are dumb to come here personally. I will rip you into pieces.”  
Baekhyun and the other three men laugh and the smaller male turns to face ZiTao who tries his best to keep his expression serious because to be honest, Baekhyun looked as dangerous as a flower. “You, little one, must be the one I want. The shadow bender, how much I have awaited your birth and you finally growing up enough for me to take your powers from you. I must admit, you grew pretty well. It will be a pity to kill you, dear.”  
ZiTao glares at him and is about to unhide a dagger to ram it into Baekhyun’s side as Luhan appears behind him in shape of a snake and sinks his teeth into ZiTao’s wrist who cries out in pain. But YiFan reacts quickly and pulls Luhan away and smashes him against a wall once more. He doesn’t have much time to ask for ZiTao’s condition because now hell is breaking loose and they have to focus on four people that can attack them at any time.  
ZiTao comes back to senses fast and ignores the pain in his wrist. He unhides his wooden stick and spins it around that fast that the bullets of Yixing’s gun don’t hit him, no matter how fast the healer shoots at him. But that is quickly over as Chanyeol simply burns his stick and tries to build eye contact to get ZiTao’s soul. But the tall Chinese looks at the other’s legs instead to keep an eye on his movements.  
Meanwhile, Luhan has regained his consciousness that he has lost for a few minutes and shifted into a hawk. A loud cry is heard from him as he attacks YiFan and tries to rob him of his eyesight by ramming his claws into them. But he doesn’t succeed as YiFan has quick reactions and just grabs him by his claws and hits Baekhyun with him, scratching his cheek with the beak of Luhan who shifts into a mouse to escape the guardian and not hurt his boss any further.  
“You know that I can steal your powers quickly, YiFan. You should be careful.” Baekhyun warns and turns to ZiTao with a devilish grin. The boy is defending himself well, even against two very well trained fighters of his but it won’t take long anymore and he will have his powers too.  
The guardian quickly comes his protégé to help and fights off Chanyeol, wanting to protect the boy’s life at any cost and bring the Korean male down quickly. Luhan has disappeared to wherever, that makes it one gatherer less to take down.  
Baekhyun just watches with interest and lets a comfortable and throne like looking chair appear to sit down while others are doing the work for him. Then it happens sooner than he thought: Luhan appears as wolf and jumps ZiTao who is distracted by him and doesn’t see how Yixing shoots him again and hits his side, making the boy fall to his knees in pain. YiFan rushes to his side and panicks, tries to stop the blood flow by pressing his hands to the wound. Baekhyun knows he wants to use his healing powers but he has robbed them a long time ago. His three gatherers stand around the two males with their usual grins and watch both of them suffer.  
Baekhyun could see that the guardian has taken a liking in his protégé but it has been clear from the start that this would be another fail of YiFan’s.  
“Don’t die, ZiTao. Come on, you can do it. Stand up and fight with me. We can do that.” YiFan pleads the boy but ZiTao just smiles and shakes his head. Suddenly, his veins become visible, Luhan’s snake teeth has been filled with poison, he has been supposed to die anyway.  
“It’s my destiny. It was my destiny from the start.” ZiTao laughs and coughs up blood. “Why should I be the one to help you take them down? I am not special, I may have special powers and be strong on the outside but I have been scarred mentally. I knew, when they started to hunt me that I wouldn’t live long, deep inside I knew that. Thank you for trying to make this nightmare an end, YiFan. We will meet again for sure.”  
“No.” YiFan shakes his head quickly, his eyes filling with tears. He can’t lose ZiTao, no he can’t let him die.” You fuckers!”  
The guardian stands up and faces the four men, black wings instead of white ones growing out of his back and his eyes glowing red. Chanyeol smirks and throws a fireball at YIFan that is quickly dodged by the guardian though and even the sudden bullets can’t harm him. They just hit his skin and fall down.  
Luhan tries it next and lunges his wolf teeth into YiFan’s skin but he whines as it is like biting in metal. The guardian grabs Luhan’s neck and lifts the wolf up, his grip tightening and keeping the male from shifting. Slowly he watches him suffocate and whimper for his last minutes of life before throwing the lifeless body aside and grabbing Chanyeol next.  
“Damn it, do something you shitheads!” Baekhyun throws in and uses his countless powers against YiFan but it is of no use. Something changed about him. He has never seen YiFan like this. What is going on now? He doesn’t even want to know and flees, leaving his gatherers alone with this monster.  
But no matter how much YiFan tries, it sn’t enough. Behind him ZiTao is dying and watching him fight for him. A very frightened Yixing is brought to him just as ZiTao is about to close his eyes with a smile.  
“Heal him, now!” YiFan yells and Yixing obeys quickly, pressing his hands to the wound and watching them glow but that only lasts for a moment as the glow stops and the wound stays.  
“What is happening? I told you to heal him!” Yixing flinches and tries it again but his hands don’t glow anymore. He feels ZiTao’s pulse and shakes his head.  
“It’s no use. He just passed away. I can heal but not bring back the dead.” YiFan grabs his protégé by his shoulders and shakes him, his eyes full of tears.  
“No, ZiTao, don’t die! You can’t die! Look, we did it! We just need to get Baekhyun and then we can both live a normal life!” But it is too late, he really can’t bring him back anymore. ZiTao doesn’t even move an eyelid. Yixing takes the chance to run away and leave the crying male behind.  
YiFan should not have pulled ZiTao into this. He could have tried it on his own. He should have ignored Jongdae’s orders. ZiTao would still be alive.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Finally, I have got to write this one shot! The new poster inspired me a lot so a big thanks to Taeryfai! I cried while writing the ending;; I hope you liked it anyway and will leave a few comments~  
> Originally posted on aff  
> could anyone tell me how to add posters??


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